Weisman Museum to Host Larry Bell Art Exhibition

The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University will have on display an art exhibition entitled Larry Bell: Pacific Red, from January 21 through April 2, with a special opening reception to meet the artist on Sunday, January 22, from 2 to 4 PM.

Bell was a founder of the California Light and Space movement in the 1960s. Since then he has pushed the boundaries of perception and technology in his on-going quest to explore light and vision. This new exhibition, Pacific Red, features a historical survey of his art from the late 1950s and 1960s as well as an exciting, new installation designed especially for the galleries of the Weisman Museum.

His work with glass arose from the incredible creative energy of the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s. During this period of intense experimentation, artists explored new non-art materials such as resin, acrylic, and fiberglass.

Bell was one of the first to develop a radically new vocabulary of forms using glass. His glass cube sculptures of the early to mid-60s received national critical attention. They were seen as vital West Coast variants of Minimalism, as works that combined the structural rigor of Hard-Edge abstraction with the seductive transparency of the emerging Fetish-Finish and Light and Space movements.

Bell’s role in shaping the art of our time was documented in the Getty Pacific Standard Time exhibition Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2011. Since then his international reputation has only continued to grow.

This exhibition reveals how he uses his signature materials—glass, Mylar, paper, and industrial coatings—to push the boundaries of vision and perception.

It is Bell’s homage to a place he has visited for decades and that plays a key role in the mythology of California. His installations make audiences question the reliability of what they see. His glass surfaces function both as mirrors and windows. By using layers of overlapping glass, Bell pushes the limits of sculpture by dissolving mass into perceptual phenomena.

Pacific Red was curated by Michael Zakian, director of the Weisman Museum, in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Gallery.